


i kinda wanna be more than friends ;)

by Stxrdust



Category: Half Life VR But The AI Is Self Aware
Genre: 5+1 Things, Blink and You Miss it Implied Sexual Content, Chuck E. Cheese's, Developing Relationship, Fluff, Gordon Freeman's Incredible Skills of Repression and Denial, M/M, Post-Canon, Swearing, Touch-Starved
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:28:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 15,349
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25179208
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stxrdust/pseuds/Stxrdust
Summary: “Oh, and Dr. Freeman?” His voice was monotone.“... Yes?”The man turned his head to look at Gordon over his shoulder, a harsh glare that did nothing to help Gordon’s nerves. “Next time, I implore you to get your boyfriend under control.”With that, the door was slammed shut in the physicist’s face, who stared blankly at the closed door. Gordon’s gaze remained locked on the metal in front of him, jaw dropped and shock written clearly across his face.A harsh bark of laughter startled him back into reality, Benrey’s laugh quickly dissolving into a cackle.or alternatively:Five times people thought that Gordon and Benrey were dating and the one time they actually were.
Relationships: Benrey/Gordon Freeman
Comments: 42
Kudos: 662





	i kinda wanna be more than friends ;)

**Author's Note:**

> Song Title From: Animal - Neon Trees

The first time it happened, Gordon didn’t really think much of it. 

Yes, it was embarrassing and yes, he was going to hate Tommy’s stupid father until the day he died, but it honestly wasn’t a huge deal. A joke, or an extreme miscalculation, the man must be under a lot of stress, after all, Black Mesa was pretty fucked up at the moment. 

Gordon had seen the damage himself as he walked the halls, footsteps echoing off the cracked tiles with every step, the smell of toxic chemicals hanging heavy in the air although it failed to completely mask the stench of the corpses that had lain there before. Arms crossed close to his chest, he grimaced at the sight of the crumbling building, eyes darting around in disgust as he took note of the decay. He stilled as a much too familiar voice reverberated down the hallway, the source of it seemingly coming from the direction that he had been headed. 

“Bro, s’like– it’s just one voucher, bro, c’mon.” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” 

“Like the– like the voucher for PSN, you know?” 

Green eyes fell shut as Gordon steeled himself for the grueling scene that was sure to be ahead. With a heavy exhale, he opened his eyes once more and continued down the hall, body noticeably tenser than before and expression pinched. Immediate regret welled up in him as he turned the corner, gaze falling onto the exact sight that he had been dreading.

There, right outside the office that Gordon was supposedly meant to meet G-Man in, was Benrey, standing far too close to the head of Black Mesa, personal space regulations seemingly thrown out the window. 

G-Man, in his defense, looked incredibly uncomfortable at the invasion of space, hands held up as a barrier in a poor attempt to keep the guard at a safe distance. The observation made Gordon feel slightly better about continuing forward, deeming it safe to assume –due to the man’s uneasy posture– that Benrey hadn’t been invited and therefore, disputing that this was some sort of setup meant to test the limits of his mental stability. G-Man must have caught sight of his form past Benrey’s, because in an instant the man’s posture straightened, slightly turning away from the guard as he angled his body towards Gordon. 

“Dr. Freeman,” the undertone of his voice made Gordon bristle, “so glad you could make it.” The physicist offered up a tight smile, which quickly changed to a frown when Benrey inevitably spoke up. 

“Yo, bro, how’s it hangin’?” Gordon winced as an arm was thrown around his shoulders. “Took my advice, huh?”

Gordon sighed, curiosity winning out against his better judgment like it so often did. “What advice?” 

“You don’t got your dick out this time, bro, haha.”

Cringing, he decided to firmly ignore the comment along with the baffled eyebrow raise directed at him from G-Man. He shot a quick scowl at Benrey, not waiting for a reaction before addressing his boss. 

“What uh–” he faltered as fingers tightened around his shoulder. Clearing his throat, he tried again. “What did you want to talk to me about?” 

The blue eyes fixed on the arm around Gordon’s shoulder darted back up to his face, G-Man straightened, a hand moving up to adjust his jacket unnecessarily. “Oh yes, of course, right this way, Dr. Freeman.” Stepping back, he pulled open the door to the office, his other hand coming up to motion Gordon through. 

With a grateful nod, he strolled into the office with his hands in his pockets, the arm slipping from around his shoulders at the action, and Benrey, sadly, right at his heels. Body stiff, he pretended not to notice the other as he sat down at the plush armchair that had been placed at the front of the desk. He saw Benrey move around the room out of the corner of his eye, the guard trailing his fingers along the peeling wallpaper.

His eyes snapped back to G-Man as the other pulled out an office chair from behind the desk and sat down, hands clasping together and thumping lightly as he set them atop the table.

Gordon could already envision the tedious conversation he would have to suffer through, the excitement of the incident a few weeks prior making him completely forget about the many boring meetings of Black Mesa. 

Unlike those, however, Benrey was here, currently walking around to poke at little trinkets and files around the room as G-Man followed him around with suspicious blue eyes. After a few seconds, he turned to address Gordon once more. “Now, Dr. Freeman, I’m sure that you’re aware of–“ 

“Bro, holy shit.” 

G-Man winced, head turning to where Gordon assumed Benrey was fucking with something behind him. “Can I help you?” The words were asked with a pained expression. 

There was a pause where Gordon could almost see Benrey’s stupid blank-faced blink. “Huh?”

G-Man sighed, hands unclasping so that he could place an elbow on the table and rest his head on one. With a deep breath, the man raised his head to continue. “As I was saying, I’m sure that you’re aware of the in–“ 

Gordon startled as a loud crash came from behind. 

“Lol oops.” 

G-Man, not to be deterred again, squeezed his eyes shut for a second before opening them again. “ _Of the incident that occurred in Black Mesa a_ –“

Once again, the man was cut off, both him and Gordon jumping in their seats as an obnoxious ringing noise exploded from the furthest corner of the room. Gordon, unable to resist looking at the chaos that Benrey was surely inflicting any longer, spun around to face the guard, arm resting along theback of the chair. 

There was a strange bell in the palm of his hand, vibrating and letting out a horrid shrieking sound every few seconds, flashing white so fast that you could barely tell that it was originally grey. 

“Put thatdown, _now_!” Hands slammed against the desk as G-Man shot up out of his seat, annoyance clear on his face. 

“Woah okay, bro, no reason t’freak lol.” Benrey dropped the horrible object carelessly back onto the shelf, waltzing over –ignoring the buzzer as it slipped and clattered to the ground– and sitting himself down on the armrest of Gordon’s chair. 

The chair started to tip off balance and Gordon, in a moment of panic, reached out, yanking Benrey off of the armrest and straight into his own lap, allowing the chair to settle firmly onto the ground once more. His eyes widened in shock, the whole thing happening faster than his brain could process. 

Benrey, indifferent as always, simply raised an eyebrow at him, an arm coming up to loop around Gordon’s neck, presumably for balance although Gordon figured that he knew better by that point. “Not even gonna buy me dinner first? Ha, bitch ass.” Benrey settled himself more securely, leaning back against and stretching out more. 

Face heating up, Gordon’s eyes narrowed in anger, mouth opening to tell Benrey off. G-Man, however, beat him to it, evidently unamused. “If we could continue? I really don’t have all day.”

Gordon shot an uneasy look at Benrey, irritation filling him as the other shrugged, a slight smirk on his face. “Of course.” Gordon bit the inside of his cheek. 

Reaching out to adjust a picture of Tommy on his desk, G-Man started up again. “Now, Dr. Freeman, to get to the main point, we need you to sign some things.” 

“What kind of things?” Gordon felt his arms involuntarily tighten around Benrey as he sat up a little straighter. 

“Nothing bad, nothing bad. This is just a... precaution, you see.” 

“A precaution?” The skepticism was practically dripping from Gordon’s voice. 

Instead of addressing it, G-Man brushed his hand atop two papers which had been placed next to a stack, fingers resting on them as he slid them across the desk, other hand reaching out to pick up a fancy pen to place on top of the documents. 

Benrey’s voice piped up before he could even reach for the pen. “Bro, don’t sign, I’ve seen this movie, he’s totally gonna steal your soul.” 

Gordon rolled his eyes at the commentary but remained suspicious. “Why would I sign this? Like, what’s your plan here?” 

G-Man pursed his lips, hands moving to rest on the now-empty desk space in front of him. “No plan, Dr. Freeman. I would just deeply appreciate it.“ 

Gordon snorted, leaning back slightly on the chair. “No offense but your facility almost got me fucking killed, so I don’t really give a shit about _what_ you appreciate.” 

Benrey let out a low whistle. “Damn, Freeman.” 

An eerie smile crossed G-Man's face, something dangerous lurking in his eyes. “Dr. Freeman, I am inquiring you to be smart about this. I know that you’re an intelligent man.” 

“Yeah, intelligent enough not to sign some random papers– are those– are those in Mandarin?” 

G-Man winced. “Um… no?” 

Sighing, Gordon slid the papers back across the desk, not even bothering to protest as Benrey snatched the pen from off the top of them. “Look, I’ve got to pick Joshua up, next time give me something I can actually read.” 

The man frowned, but picked up the papers and stacked them back onto the pile, startling and shooting a glare up at Benrey as the other stabbed the pen into the desk, snagging the pen from his hand despite the quiet booing he received. 

Forgetting that Benrey was still on his lap, Gordon went to stand, movement quickly aborted when the extra weight held him down. 

Thankfully, Benrey seemed to get the message and also didn’t want to spend any more time with Tommy’s father in his dull office. Benrey hopped up, stretching his arms over his head before turning and strolling over to the door, leaning against the wall next to it. 

Following, Gordon ignored the ding from his pocket (his reminder to pick Joshua up from preschool) and pushed open the door, a hand landing on the guard's shoulder instinctively to steer him out of the office. Stepping out into the hallway after him, he turned to stare at G-Man, arm still holding the door open. 

The man had his arms crossed, blue eyes boring into Benrey, who at a second glance, appeared to be tracing the lines on his palms with the fancy pen from earlier –God only knows how he got a hold of it again– as he walked in circles. 

His nerves spiked when G-Man’s irritated gaze slid to him. “You will be contacted again in a few days by our department.” 

With a curt nod, he watched G-Man turn, freezing right before he closed the door to the office shut. 

“Oh, and Dr. Freeman?” His voice was monotone. 

“... Yes?” 

The man turned his head to look at Gordon over his shoulder, a harsh glare that did nothing to help Gordon’s nerves. “Next time, I implore you to get your boyfriend _under control_.” 

With that, the door was slammed shut in the physicist’s face, who stared blankly at the closed door. Gordon’s gaze remained locked on the metal in front of him, jaw dropped and shock written clearly across his face. 

A harsh bark of laughter startled him back into reality, Benrey’s laugh quickly dissolving into a cackle. 

Taking a deep breath, he snapped his jaw shut before spinning on his heel, shooting Benrey the meanest glare he could muster and quickly speed-walking down the hallway, hands shoved deep in his pockets. He deftly ignored the heat in his cheeks, fuming as Benrey’s laughter faded into the distance. 

—

The second time it happened, though, the second time Gordon had given no one any reason at all to think that Benrey was his boyfriend. Not really. 

Well, he hadn’t been the recipient of a lap full of Benrey at the time, so that was like, a step in the direction of being platonic friends. Not that Benrey was his friend. At all. 

In fact, Gordon had been firmly thinking about just how much they were _not_ friends as they walked down the deserted boardwalk, the moon shining bright above them. It had been approximately two months since what Gordon had taken upon himself to refer to as the ‘I Hate Tommy’s Dad Incident’. 

Since then, Benrey had pretty much moved in ( _read; barged into his house and then refused to leave_ ) with Gordon after the little fucker followed him back to his home from Black Mesa. Not that he had bothered to ask permission, or even give a heads up, but Gordon was just so, _so_ tired. The Black Mesa Incident had taken a lot out of him and he was far too exhausted to start a losing fight with Benrey. Especially since he got the feeling that Benrey didn’t really have anywhere else to go, and to be honest, Gordon had lived with way worse roommates in the past. He shuddered at the unwelcomed thought of his old college roommate, thanking every God he could think of that the guy was most likely still in jail. 

Gordon was forcibly pulled from his thoughts of shitty roommates and jail by a rough yank on the sleeve of his hoodie.

“Yo,” there was another tug, this one just as rough as the first, “bro, I’m thirsty.” 

Gordon looked over at Benrey out of the corner of his eye before redirecting his gaze across the boardwalk, eyes catching on a small pizza place. Smiling, he knocked their shoulders together, attempting to disregard the harsh grip the other had on his wrist. He jerked his head in the direction of the restaurant. “You hungry?” 

Benrey shot him a smirk. “Why, bro, asking me on a date?”

Gordon felt himself flush, quickly looking away from the other, although he doubted that Benrey hadn’t noticed the redness in his face. “Fine, fucking starve, asshole. I don’t care.” He saw Benrey’s stupid smirk morph into a grin out of his peripheral vision, tensing as Benrey pressed himself up against Gordon’s side. 

“C’mon, Freeman, I makin’ you nervous, bro?” 

Gordon’s mouth twitched involuntarily at the corners. “Shut up.” Despite his chasting, he slid a hand around tothe guard’s upper back, pressing over his shirt and steering him in the direction of the restaurant. 

“Aw lil’ baby Gordon’s all scared of–“ 

Gordon moved the hand that had been resting against the other’s back over his shoulder to clasp over his mouth, effectively cutting him off. He felt Benrey snicker against his palm as Gordon pushed open the glass door with one shoulder, walking them both up to the front counter, still covering the guard’s mouth. 

To Gordon’s relief, the teenager at the counter didn’t seem to be bothered by the scene, flipping through a magazine about –Gordon squinted at it from behind his glasses– Patton Oswalt, whoever the fuck that was. 

“Ahem,” Gordon cleared his throat. 

She cast a bored glance up at Gordon, blowing a bubble from her gum before responding. “Hey.” 

Confused, Gordon blinked dumbly at her. “Uh, hi?” 

After a second of very uncomfortable eye contact, she dropped her gaze and went back to reading her magazine, flipping the page with a finger.

Benrey was definitely laughing quietly against his palm now. 

Gordon looked around, the heavy silence that hung around them making his nerves spike, and though he wouldn’t admit it in a hundred years, he was glad that Benrey was here with him. Swallowing, Gordon spoke up again. “Uh, can we get a table?” 

Not even bothering to look up, she jerked her thumb in the general direction of an empty booth.

“Oh...kay.” 

Desperate to escape the distressingly awkward atmosphere, he turned, walking quickly to the booth tucked into the corner of the room. He jolted as something wet slid against his palm. Ripping his hand away from Benrey’s mouth, he cast a scandalized gaze at the other, disgust plain on his face. “Did you– did you just lick my hand?” 

The only reply came in the form of Benrey sticking his tongue out at him like a toddler. 

“Weirdo,” Gordon mumbled, wiping the spit on his palm off onto his jeans. He slid into the booth, tensing at both the unpleasant coldness of the seat and when, instead of sliding into the booth across from him like any normal person, Benrey slid right in next to him, pressing himself against Gordon’s side. “Have you ever - _ever_ – heard of personal space?” Gordon snapped, although he let an arm rest on the back of the booth, fingers brushing against the fabric of the guard’s shirt. 

Benrey reached his hand across the table, snagging a few of the complimentary breadsticks from the basket and shoving them in his mouth. He answered, mouth still full. “Who?” bread crumbs spewed as he spoke. 

Gordon shot him a look of complete disgust. “Dude, that’s fucking gross,” he said, shoving at the guard half-heartedly.

Benrey, not to be defeated, shoved him back harder, sticking his tongue out despite the fact that he had still been chewing the breadsticks. 

“Ew,” Gordon bitched, but he couldn’t stop his unintentional snort of amusement at the sight. 

Benrey, seemingly encouraged, smirked, pressing in close again, a hand coming up to rest on Gordon’s shoulder. Green eyes wide, Gordon gulped, Benrey’s smirk turning downright predatory as he leaned in closer.

Gordon startled when someone loudly cleared their throat above them.

Both of their gazes shot up, Gordon’s face red with embarrassment while Benrey had on the same bored expression he almost always wore. 

A young lady smiled cheerily at them. “Hello, my name’s Claire and I’ll be your server, what can I get for you today?” Her voice came like she was reading off a script.

Gordon fumbled for words. “Uh–“ he cursed himself as he realized that he hadn’t even looked at the menu, distracted by the guard’s obnoxious presence like he always was.

Speak of the _fucking_ devil. 

“A pizza, please. Please, ma’am.” 

Gordon fought a smile at his antics, elbowing him in the side. Thankfully, the server didn’t seem even the slightest bit fazed, a dead look in her eyes now that he was paying attention. “A medium cheese pizza and two waters, please,” he requested, shooting a glare at Benrey, although the effect was probably taken away by his amused smile. 

“And a soda. A soda for your pal Benrey, ma’am?” 

With a sigh, Gordon repeated the ask like a normal person. He gave Benrey his best ‘disappointed father’ face, but the other simply blinked at him. 

“Of course, coming right up.” With that, she practically disappeared, most likely to take more orders. His suspicion was confirmed when he heard the same greeting line he had been offered up a few minutes earlier. 

Gordon returned his attention to Benrey, who had pressed his hand on top of Gordon’s open palm, fingers pressed together as he tapped out a rhythm. 

“Haha, your hands are so big, bro.”

The corner of his mouth quirked up as he laced his fingers with Benrey’s, disrupting the other’s rhythm. “Maybe your hands are just small, dumbass,” he teased. 

“Nah, got big hands, man, Gordon Handman.” 

Gordon’s slight smile bloomed into a grin. “That doesn’t work at all, idiot, you need to get some better material.”

“My materials fuckin’ sick, got no taste, bro,” Benrey clicked his tongue. 

“Yeah, probably why I’m here with you.” 

“Ouch, lil’ bitch boy pissy today huh?” 

Gordon pinched the guard’s thigh with the hand that had been resting on it.

“Bro, we’re in public,” Benrey batted his eyelashes at Gordon mockingly. 

Gordon bit back a smile, picking up their joined hands to shove them in Benrey’s dumb face. There was a loud clang as the pizza was set down noisily on the center of their table. Gordon dropped their hands down onto the guard’s lap. The pizza was almost immediately followed by two bottles of water and a can of coke. 

The waitress pushed at the pen tucked behind her ear as she swapped a salt shaker with the presumably empty on that had been on the table beforehand. “Is that all?” 

“Yeah, thanks,” Gordon said politely, offering up a smile that the lady returned before leaving once more. He sighed when he turned to Benrey, who was already eating a piece of the pizza, or, more accurately, attempting to cram the piece fully into his mouth in one go. Deciding to pick and choose his battles, he rolled his eyes, snagging his own piece, which he then proceeded to eat like a normal person.

They ate in relative silence, Benrey stuffing his face with more than half of the slices and Gordon eating a few at a calm rate so that he wouldn’t choke to death. He sat back after he was finished, watching Benrey tear through the pizza like he hadn’t eaten in years, which Gordon knew for a fact was a lie because he had watched him pour the rest of the lucky charms into his mouth straight from the box just that afternoon. The physicist sipped slowly at his water, one elbow resting on the top of the table to hold his head up, while his other hand stayed linked underneath the table with Benrey’s. “Are you _trying_ to choke and die?” 

Benrey gulped loudly in response before, terrifyingly, swallowing half of one of the slices that he’d snagged whole. “Huh?” 

Shaking his head, Gordon went back to sipping at his water and staring at the other. “Nevermind.” 

Finally, Benrey finished off the last of the pizza, taking two sips of his waterbefore, to Gordon’s absolute dread, picking up his soda and downing it in less than three seconds flat.

Horrified gaze locked on Benrey, Gordon almost didn’t notice as the waitress approached the table again. 

She gave them both a smile, amusement in her eyes as she paced the check down in front of Gordon along with a pen. 

Snapping himself out of it, Gordon opened the checkbook, reaching into his pocket to grab his wallet and slipping in the cash that he owed, letting go of the other’shand to pick up the pen and sign the receipt.

Arms clasped behind her, she waited patiently as Gordon signed the check. “You boys enjoy your meal?” 

“Yeah, fuckin’ nice, bro,” the reply came with a thumbs up. 

Finishing his signature, Gordon winced at the other’s choice of wording. 

Thankfully, the woman didn’t seem too put out, laughing at the reply. 

The pen clattered as he dropped it down onto the table, slipping a more-than-average tip into the corner of the table, he figured she deserved it for putting up with their so-called ‘annoying as all hell’ ( _quote: Bubby_ ) presence. Closing the book, he reached over to Benrey to hand it to her, his other hand landing on Benrey’s back to nudge him out of the booth. 

Benrey took the hint, thankfully just getting out and not deciding to make Gordon’s life any harder than it already was. 

He slipped out after him, unconsciously reaching his fingers out to twine them with Benrey’s once again. 

The server walked them to the door, Gordon belatedly realizing that they were the last people there. He turned as they reached the door, Benrey opening it behind him and stepping outside, leaving their hands to dangle between them as he propped the door open with his shoulder. “Thanks,” he offered her a smile before stepping out with Benrey, who let the door slip closed. 

Right before it fully shut, however, she said something that had Gordon turn bright red in the face. “No problem, always lucky to serve such entertaining couples.” 

Gordon spun around to protest, but the door had already shut, a closed sign pinned to it. 

Benrey almost doubled over with the force of the maniacal laugh that he let out, attracting the attention of the few other people on the boardwalk. 

Face burning, Gordon yanked Benrey forwards as he stalked away from the restaurant. “C’mon,” he mumbled, embarrassment clear in his voice. 

Benrey then proceeded to laugh for the next two minutes straight, and Gordon was left wondering why he didn’t just kill the other again.

—

The third time it happened, Gordon probably should have seen it coming. But he did not. Because there was no relationship, therefore there was no reason to assume there was a relationship. 

Gordon got it okay, he knew that he and Benrey were pretty touchy, but he had always just assumed that they were both touch starved, what with Gordon being divorced and Benrey being some kind of eldritch abomination. 

Benrey was the one who had started it anyway, and Gordon was simply too kind a person to not indulge him, and if it was good for Gordon too, well that was just another upside. Plus there wasn’t really any harm was there?

But the thing about the third time is that the perpetrators of the ludacris crime of assuming that Gordon and Benrey were a couple couldn’t even _see_ Gordon and Benrey, so there was no way that they would have noticed the hand-holding or the laying on top of each other or the complete disregard for personal space. 

Because the third time Benrey had been making mocking comments for three hours down in the living room into his stupid headset. Loud mocking comments. 

After the third incredibly loud blast, Gordon huffed and dropped his forehead down against the desk, the thump being quickly followed by yet another blast from the tv. The tv downstairs, to be more precise. That of which Gordon could hear from upstairs in his office with the door closed fully. He could almost see the angry notes that his neighbors would be writing and sticking to the door if he allowed the current noise-level to keep up. 

Then, for one blissful, wonderful second, everything went quiet. Right as Gordon felt his hopes start to rise though, they were immediately crushed by yet another blaring gunshot. Shooting to his feet, Gordon slammed his fists against the desk, anger rolling off of him in waves. Breathing in heavily through his nose, he forced himself to calm down, shoulders dropping despite the overwhelming urge to tense up again. 

A few moments later, Gordon deemed himself calm enough to not murder Benrey on sight. Turning, he pushed open the door to the office, letting it click shut behind him. The commotion got louder the further he went, causing him to wince at a few particularly blaring sounds that sort of reminded him of a screeching cat. Hand barely skimming the railing, Gordon stepped down the stairs as quickly as he could without tripping and breaking his skull, taking a sharp right into the hall and heading toward the living room.

Sure enough, when Gordon entered the room Benrey was sprawled across the side of the couch, headset on –Gordon absently noted that it was connected to his phone and not the tv for some fucking reason– and controller in hand. 

“Ha fuckin’ loser,” Benrey jeered as a character onscreen fell off the roof. 

Gordon stomped over, snatching up the tv remote from the coffee table and pressing his thumb against the minus sign until the volume reached zero, ignoring Benrey’s protests. 

“Bro, c’mon!”

Arms crossed, Gordon turned, leveling the other with a harsh glare. 

“Uh oh, somebody’s bein’ a lil’ piss baby.” 

Gordon scowled, annoyance clear on his face. “Will you turn your shit down? We’re going to start getting complaints from the neighbors, _again_.” 

Sadly, the scolding only elicited a smirk from Benrey. “Aw c’mon, don’t be like that, babe,” Benrey taunted, ducking as Gordon chucked the TV remote at his head. 

“Fuck you, asshole.” Gordon stalked over, reaching out and tangling his fingers in the cord of the headset, yanking it from the other’s cracked phone. 

“Dude, he sounds pissed,” another voice came from the phone. 

Gaze catching on the screen, Gordon rolled his eyes at the sight of the discord voice chat screen. “Yeah, I am pissed,” he snapped into the phone, “also, who the fuck makes their username JaredFucks69?” 

Benrey cackled at the remark. 

A mumbled, “It was for a joke,” came through the phone. 

Another voice came through the phone, this one much more feminine than the other. “Hey! Can you hear us?” 

“Uh… yeah?” Gordon startled as a more familiar voice piped up. 

“Hey! Is that Mr. Freeman?” 

“Tommy?” 

Whatever reply Tommy was going to give was quickly interrupted by yelling coming from the speaker. 

Benrey immediately stopped laughing, gripping his controller so tight that it squeaked and leaning to the side to see the screen past Gordon.

Sighing, Gordon turned to watch as Benrey’s character sprinted through a destroyed town, jumping up and down as he slashed a knife through the air for no fucking reason.

Someone with a sword flashed by on the screen, Benrey’s spinning to follow them, the screen being encompassed by a giant green dragon-looking creature. 

Distracted and figuring he deserved a break from taxes, Gordon plopped himself down next to Benrey as the other ran towards the dragon(?), slashing at its legs with the knife as a few other players –who Gordon assumed must be his teammates– jumped around it. 

“Guys watch ou–“ The warning came too late as Gordon watched the red health bar plummet, the ground around him lighting up with fire before blood ran down the screen, followed by a bright red ‘You Died!’ in bolded letters.

“Fuck!” Benrey swore, slamming his controller down against his lap. 

Gordon snorted, only to have grey eyes turn on him in an accusatory glare. 

“Bro, this is why you don’t mute the game,” Benrey grumped, hands going to grip the controller again. 

“You’ll live,” came the unsympathetic reply. 

Benrey grumbled under his breath as he respawned, running to help his teammates set the dragon on fire, shooting at it until the creature fell to the ground in a heap soundlessly. 

Gordon jumped in his seat as cheering erupted from the speaker, glaring at Benrey as the other laughed at him, seemingly past his moodiness from a few seconds earlier. 

“Aw, the baby scared? Don’t worry, bro, I’ll hold your hand,” Benrey raised a hand from the controller to poke Gordon’s cheek. 

Gordon glared at him, batting his hand away. “Oh fuck you.” 

Benrey winked at him, arm coming up to rest on the back of the couch for only a second before slipping down to fall across Gordon’s shoulders. 

Biting back a smile, Gordon ducked down to hide it from Benrey, although if the other’s beaming grin was anything to go by he had been a little too slow. 

“Yo, Freeman, are you uhhh– hittin’ on me or somethin’, bro? You tryna simp for me?” 

Despite knowing what Benrey was trying to do, Gordon laughed, tucking his head against Benrey’s neck in a poor attempt to stifle it. He felt the other’s arm settle more firmly across his shoulders, fingers brushing his collarbone, cheeks heating up at the action. 

“Hey, hey– hey, bro, bro.” Realizing that the other had been trying to get his attention, Gordon snapped himself back to the world of the living. 

“What?” the words came out muffled against Benrey’s neck. 

“Wanna PSN and chill?” 

Gordon let out another harsh bark of laughter, hands coming up to shove weakly at Benrey, lifting his head, only to be greeted by the other’s sharp-toothed grin. “Oh my god, that was fucking horrible.”

“Nah, it was good,” Benrey had his legs over Gordon’s in an instant, moving closer to the other.

Gordon felt his face heat up even more. The smile fell from his face as a wolf whistle came from the speaker, body flooding with embarrassment. 

“Get some, Ben!” 

The woman’s voice piped up again, “Jared, s _hut up_! You’re ruining their moment!” 

“Oh sorry!” 

“C– congratulations, Mr. Freeman!” 

Gordon sighed, smiling coming back. “Thanks, Tommy,” he said, not exactly sure what he was being congratulated on but not sure he wanted to know. 

“Hey, though, if you guys are gonna fuck could you like– leave the call or mute yourselves or something,” ‘Jared’s’ voice crackled through the phone. 

Gordon sputtered, face going red again. 

Benrey grinned. “Can’t believe your turnin’ down free porn, bro,” he leaned over to speak loudly into the phone.

Hands came up to shove Benrey away and back onto the couch away from him. “Will you just play your stupid game?” Gordon grumbled. 

“Why? My sexy gaming skills get you all hot, bro?”

“I will fucking kill you and let Joshua eat all your Froot Loops.” 

Benrey simply smirked at him. “Nah, you wouldn’t,” he said, moving his character forward on screen, not-so-subtly moving closer to Gordon again. 

Gordon’s snappish remark was cut short by a yawn and hiseyes darted over to the clock at the corner of the TV screen, the time 3:24 a.m. flashing faintly. Moving inwards on the couch, Gordon pressed himself up against Benrey’s form again, head dropping onto the other’s shoulder. 

He felt Benrey tense for a second below him before relaxing into the couch again, an arm coming up to wrap around Gordon's shoulders once more. Offhandedly, he noted that Benrey was talking –a huff of laughter shaking Gordon slightly– but he let it go through one ear and out the other, eyelids drooping shut as he let the chatter of Benrey and his teammates to flow around him. 

He let himself breathe in the guard’s scent, hand coming up to haphazardly knock his glasses off into his lap before turning further and burying his face in Benrey’s neck, not even half-processing the words coming from the other’s mouth. Settling, Gordon let his focus narrow down to the arm around him as he slowly faded out. 

When he blearily blinked back into wakefulness the arm was still wrapped snugly around his shoulders, his body pressed completely up against the other’s side. Lifting his hand, Gordon rubbed his eyes, opening them to see Benrey holding his controller with one hand as he mocked someone over the phone. 

His gaze darted around the room until it settled on the clock again, the 3:24 a.m. replaced by 6:08 a.m. He squeezed his eyes shut again, moving his face back to Benrey’s neck and grunting in annoyance, a hand coming up to tug at the one around his shoulders. 

“Yo, he’s awake haha,” Benrey informed whoever the hell he was on the phone with. 

Gordon tugged again. “Bed. Tired.” Blinking his eyes open, he peaked up to see Benrey smiling at him, a strange sort of fondness in his gaze.

He watched as the other pressed pause on the controller before dropping it onto the coffee table with a clatter, picking up his phone, voices still crackling across the line. 

“Is that Gordon?” The girl’s voice came through again, way too excited for six in the _fucking_ morning in Gordon’s humble opinion. 

“Hey, Mr. Freeman!” Tommy’s voice, at least, was familiar.

“Gordon, my man!” And there, of course, was that stupid Jared guy.

Removing his face from Benrey’s neck, Gordon blinked at him, squinting without his glasses in a poor attempt to focus the other’s face. “H–how,” Gordon fumbled over his words, “how do they know my name?” What Gordon had attempted to whisper must have come out much louder than he thought, as laughter erupted from the speaker. 

“Okay, bros, I gotta uh– gotta get him to bed or he’s gonna be all bitchy. Bye losers ‘n Tommy.”

“Bye! And bye, Mr. Freeman!” 

“See you guys!” The girl chirped, Gordon really ought to figure out her name sometime. 

Still half-asleep, Gordon mumbled out what he hoped was a decent goodbye of his own, but he wasn’t so sure. 

Then, because apparently, the world had some fucked up vendetta against him, Gordon couldn’t just accept the goodbyes with an unintelligible reply and go the fuck back to sleep, JaredFucks69 just had to make a stupid comment like his stupid username and couldn’t just say goodbye like a half-decent person. “Get your boyfriend to bed before he fucking murders you, man.” 

Eyes shooting open, Gordon attempted to stumble over a retort. “Hey! I am _not_ his boy–“ Sadly, his protest was promptly cut off as Benrey hit the button to leave the call, smirking at him as he did so. 

Before the physicist could chew him out for it though, Benrey was dropping his arm from across Gordon’s shoulders to wrap around his waist, heaving him off the couch. “Sleepy time, bro, let’s go,” Benrey teased. 

Gordon let out an annoyed huff, but let Benrey support him as they walked up the stairs and into Gordon’s room as the physicist fazed in and out of consciousness. Thank God for Benrey’s stupid superhuman strength or whatever it was.

Dropping down onto the bed, Gordon turned to bury his face in his pillow, feeling Benrey pull up the blanket around him. “Not your boyfriend,” came the mumbled retort from the comment earlier, although it was muffled by the pillow. 

Benrey must have understood the words though, as a snort came from his direction and the click of the light by the bed being turned off, light fading from the room. “Yeah, okay, bro,” the sarcasm was practically dripping from Benrey’s words. 

Before Gordon could think of a suitable comeback for that, the room went dark, and he felt himself doze off, although he was pretty sure he wasn’t imagining the press of someone’s lips to his forehead.

—

The fourth time it happened, some small, subconscious part of Gordon had probably been expecting it. He got what they looked like, _alright_? He wasn’t stupid! He had a PhD for fucks sake! He graduated from MIT at the top of his fucking class! 

The point was, Gordon was very well aware of how close they seemed to be. Aware of how it wasn’t usually perceived as platonic to act like this, like one unit with their arms constantly around each other or hands constantly touching one another’s skin or bodies constantly pressing together and throwing away all the laws of personal space. 

So Gordon got it, he wasn’t stupid, he was just really, _really_ good at denial. And also repression. And probably another million coping mechanisms that were absolutely terrible for his mental state but that had worked so far, so he wasn’t about to go fix what wasn’t broken. 

Another wonderful coping mechanism that he had picked up along the way was blocking out Benrey so that he wouldn’t get sent to jail for strangling the other to death. 

Unluckily for Gordon, some things just couldn’t be blocked out. Such as Benrey blasting the most horrid noise that Gordon had ever heard over the radio's Bluetooth as he drove. Unable to listen to the awful noise anymore, he finally spoke up after what was most likely less than fifteen seconds but more than enough time for him to seriously contemplate driving the car off of the old bridge a few blocks up. “What the fuck are you doing to my radio?” Gordon snapped at him, hands tightening on the wheel. 

“Huh?” 

“I swear to God, Benrey, I will gut you while you sleep.” 

“Nah, you’re too cringe.” 

“That makes no _fucking_ sense and stop dodging the _fucking_ question!” 

“Bro, chill, it’s just ten hours of those uhh– those werewolf monkeys screaming lol.”

“Okay– first of all, what the fuck is a werewolf monkey? Second of all, when I said you could play something I meant _music_.” 

“This is nature’s music, bro, don’t be such a hater, man,” Benrey said, completely fucking ignoring the first question. 

Gordon sighed, pulling up to a red light as he tapped his fingers against the wheel. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind. “Wait, wait– did you mean Wolf’s Mona Monkey?” 

“Wha?” 

“Oh for– just fucking forget it,” Gordon shot him a glare.

Benrey raised his hands in a surrendering motion before reaching out to disconnect his phone, instead opting to flip through the radio stations. All of the radio stations. Multiple times.

Fed up, Gordon took one hand off the wheel to slap Benrey’s hand away from the buttons, leaving the station on some radio show, an energetic man talking a mile a minute about baseball or something. “What is _wrong_ with you today?” Gordon shot a concerned look at the other. 

“Hm?” 

“You’re worse than usual.” 

“Bro, why are you so mean?” Benrey whined. 

Gordon sighed softly. “Ben,” he let the concern flood into his voice. 

There was a few seconds of tense silence filled only by Benrey tapping his fingers against the widow in a tuneless rhythm and the radio host’s irritating voice. 

“Do you think he’ll like– uh like– like, like me?” Benrey’s voice came out much quieter than usual. 

“Who?” Gordon asked, confusion clear on his face. 

“You know, bro, your like, your little gremlin thing.”

“My what?” 

“That one from the picture, bro.” 

Gordon froze. “My _son_?” 

“Uh, yeah, him,” Benrey’s tapping sped up. 

Slowing down at another red light, Gordon turned to stare incredulously at Benrey. “Okay wait, you’ve been acting weird for the past three days because you’re worried that Joshua, my son who you said ‘looked pretty shit’ or whatever, _will not like you_?” 

Benrey scoffed, crossing his arms. “Yeah, well when you say it like that it sounds dumb,” he scowled. 

Gordon felt the corners of his mouth twitch up as he turned his gaze back to the road. “You’re kind of a loser, you know that?” 

Benrey’s head spun away from the window, face sporting the most offended look Gordon had ever seen on him. “Okay yeah, coming from Gordon Feetman.” Benrey spat, arms crossing defensively. 

Smile still in place, Gordon rolled his eyes as he took a left turn. “He will.” 

“Wha?” 

“He’ll like you,” Gordon clarified, watching Benrey out of the corner of his eye as the other turned to look out the window again. 

“You sure?” 

“Benrey.” He saw Benrey glance over at him, “I’m sure,” Gordon reassured. 

He watched as Benrey smiled slightly, directing his gaze back out the window, fingers tapping again. 

“Cool.” 

Gordon snorted, taking a hard right turn just to see Benrey’s face smack against the glass of the window. The excited talk show host’s voice filled the silence as Gordon drove down the cracked streets, Benrey uncharacteristically quiet. A few minutes of unnerving silence later, Gordon was pulling the car into an empty parking space right outside the preschool. 

After doing a subpar parking job, Gordon twisted the keys out of the ignition and shoved them into his jeans pocket, reaching over to press the release button of the passenger side seat belt before undoing his own. When he looked up again, he caught Benrey grinning at him. “What?” Gordon frowned. He watched warily as the guard’s grin only grew. 

“Nothing,” the other replied, turning to open the door and jumping out, boots hitting the pavement with a thump, the car door shutting as he kicked it close with his heel. 

Gordon got the feeling that he was being laughed at, but then again, with Benrey he almost always got that feeling, he was half convinced the little bastard got off on Gordon’s aggravation. Turning himself, Gordon opened his own door, stepping out of the car and slamming the door shut just a little too loudly. Hands sliding into his pockets, he walked around to where Benrey was leaning against the hood, waiting with his phone out. “You remember what told you earlier right?” Gordon questioned. 

“I got it, bro, don’t worry,” Benrey waved him off, other hand still tapping diligently at his cracked phone screen.

Gordon eyed him skeptically. 

Benrey caught him and rolled his eyes, sighing, he lifted his hand to tick the rules off his fingers as he said them. “No cursing, no calling Ms. Johnson bro, no breaking slash ruining slash setting anything on fire, I got it,” Benrey said, exasperation clear in his voice. 

Sighing, Gordon reached out, slipping his fingers in between Benrey’s and pulling him off and away from the car. Gordon yanked him across the street –hand-in-hand– before the other could come up with some line that would inevitably help lead to his downfall when Gordon finally got fed up and murdered him. 

Stepping up the concrete stairs, Gordon raised his left fistto knock against the double doors as Benrey shifted anxiously next to him. Gordon squeezed his hand in reassurance, bumping their shoulders together, smiling when he felt Benrey relax and squeeze back. 

Almost immediately, the door swung open to reveal Joshua’s teacher, a strained smile on her face, and what looked like paint smeared across her cheek. “Mr. Freeman!” Her eyes turned to Benrey, her face giving away her surprise –probably at the sight of Gordon with someone– but her smile didn’t waver. “And hello Mr...?” She trailed off. 

“Uh, it’s just Benrey.” 

Raising an eyebrow, confusion flashed across her face. “Alright... Benrey.” 

There was an awkward pause which, thankfully, was quickly broken by a loud crash from down the hall. Gordon watched as the teacher’s eyes widened in panic before she spun and practically sprinted into the classroom. 

Gordon moved forward, underestimating his strength and overestimating the weight of the door, sending it flying open only to be stopped by the concrete wall with a loud bang. Wincing, he moved inside to hold the door open, reaching out to pull Benrey up inside with him and letting his hand slide down Benrey’s arm to tangle their fingers together once more. 

Benrey stepped up, trailing behind Gordon as the physicist shouldered his way into the classroom, the door letting out a loud squeak as he did so. 

Gordon’s gaze settled on Joshua, the boy immediately perking up from where he was playing with a small blonde girl, the two both clutching multicolored blocks in their hands. 

“Daddy!” Joshua dropped the blocks on the floor with a clatter, running way faster than should have been possible considering his height and flinging himself to wrap around Gordon’s leg. Dropping Benrey’s hand for the moment, Gordon crouched down to pick up Joshua. 

“Hey, Josh,” Gordon smiled at him, eyes crinkling at the corners. 

Joshua wrapped his arms around Gordon’s neck, curious gaze catching on Benrey, who was leaning against the wall next to Gordon, hands shoved in his pockets. 

“Ben!” 

Benrey’s gaze darted back to the two, surprise crossing his face. He looked around in confusion, finger coming up to point at himself uncertainly.

Joshua smiled at him. “Ben!” 

Gordon turned to the other, smile morphing into a grin as Joshua reached his hand out to Benrey in a determined grabbing motion. 

“Here hold him,” Gordon handed him off to Benrey without waiting for the reply.

Eyes wide, Benrey moved his arms to hold Joshua, a shocked expression on his face as the preschooler gripped his shirt in tiny fists, pulling at the fabric in an attempt to do God knows what. 

Gordon’s grin widened as Benrey looked up at him in a panic. He shrugged **,** spinning to walk over to Ms. Johnson, who was currently preoccupied trying to stop a child from consuming the playdough that he had stuck all over his face and fingers. She offered him a distracted smile as he walked up, pointing to the direction of the sign-out sheet before returning to the harrowing task of removing play dough from a child's hair. 

Gordon had been there. In fact, Gordon had been there _six fucking times_ already this month, and he was seriously contemplating hunting down whoever the hell thought that making play dough was a good idea and murdering them, or at least horribly maiming them for their crimes against parental figures. 

Nodding his thanks, he strolled over to the sheet, gaze straying back to where Benrey was holding Joshua, surrounded by his new fanclub of four-year-olds as he blew the sweet voice bubbles into Joshua’s face, electing a lot of giggles and children attempting to jump high enough to pop them. 

Shaking his head, Gordon ducked his headto mask a smile, returning his attention to the desk where the sign out sheet sat. He picked up the pen and promptly signed his name next to Joshua’s along with the current time. The pen hit the desk with a clatter as Gordon turned to head back to his boys, offering a wave to the teacher, who’s only response was a sidetracked nod.

Gordon approached with a grin, narrowly avoiding the same children that had gathered to stare at the blue orbs floating around, most sat on the ground a few feet away to look at the one a little boy had managed to grab. 

“Alright, Joshua, where’s your backpack?” 

Joshua reached his open hand toward the ground, making a noise.

Benrey gently set him back onto the floor. 

Joshua ran over to the cubbies, yelling out a goodbye to the girl –who was now sprawled on her back, half-asleep– that he had been playing with earlier as he passed her.

Gordon dutifully followed, crouching down beside Joshua when they reached his cubby and reaching out to grab his backpack off of the hook. “Ready?” Gordon asked, eyes bright as he went to stand. He was immediately stopped by a fist clutching his sleeve, the tug causing Gordon to look down at Joshua. 

“What’s up, bud?” He asked expectantly. He watched as Joshua looked around the room conspiratorially before he crooked a finger to signal Gordon down to his level. Gordon raised an eyebrow but cooperatively crouched down next to him again. “What’s up?” He repeated the unanswered question. 

“Can we keep him?” Joshua asked in a whisper, a serious expression on his face. 

Shooting him a confused look, Gordon placed a hand against the tile to hold his crouching form steady. “Keep who?” Gordon imitated his whispered tone. 

Green eyes followed the path of the small finger raised to point in Benrey’s direction as the man in question scrolled through his phone, leaning against the wall once more. Gordon turned back to the four-year-old. 

“Benrey?” 

Joshua nodded vigorously. 

Gordon snorted at his enthusiasm. “Yeah, okay.” 

“Are you gonna get married?” 

“Wha– what?” Gordon sputtered, letting out a nervous laugh. 

“So we can stay together,” Joshua clarified.

“We uh– we don’t need to get married to do that, bud,” Gordon felt his face heat up at the words. 

“No, you marry people you like in the gross way, Mia told me.” 

“What makes you think I like him in the gross way?” 

Joshua shot him the most unimpressed look that Gordon had ever seen in his life.“You do,” he stated. 

Before Gordon could think up a good retort to that, Benrey interrupted the conversation. 

“Bro, we going or what?” Benrey called from his place by the door.

“Yeah, hold on!” Gordon looked back at Joshua, eyes narrowing as he stuck a finger in the toddler's face. “Not a word about this, understand?” 

Joshua simply gigged in response, darting past Gordon and over to Benrey, mouth moving as he pointed at Gordon.

Something he said caused Benrey to laugh, looking over to shoot a wink at Gordon. 

Gordon hung his head and sighed, pulling Joshua’s backpack over his shoulder as he pushed himself off the ground, praying to whatever God that there was that he wouldn’t be about to experience the worst car ride in his twenty-seven years of life.

—

The fifth time that it happened, it wasn’t just some small subconscious part of Gordon that had been expecting it. No, in fact, he had not only been expecting the question, but _waiting_ for it. See, Gordon had accepted the fact that, yes, what they did could be seen as dating from an outsider's point of view, even if they were one hundred percent incorrect in that assumption.

So the fact that the Science Team, the group of people that he was probably closest to in the world (besides his family and Benrey, of course) hadn’t said anything about it yet was unnerving. 

Maybe they were just respecting his privacy? Gordon almost laughed out loud at the thought. They did know him and Benrey pretty well though, so maybe they could just tell that they weren’t dating? 

Yeah. 

This was the theory that the physicist stuck with all the way up until a whopping six months since the “I Hate Tommy’s Dad Incident’ that started the whole fucking mess. 

Gordon had been entering a Chuck E. Cheese (go figure) with Benrey –who had run off to God knows where the second that the door swung shut behind them– to meet the rest of the gang. Knowing how common courtesy worked, unlike Benrey, Gordon walked over to the booth that currently belonged to Dr. Coomer, Bubby, Tommy and was that… Darnold? –Green eyes caught on a wagging tail from underneath the booth– And apparently Sunkist as well, despite the no dogs allowed sign plastered against the wall at the front of the building. 

Dr. Coomer was the first to spot him, hand coming up to wave enthusiastically at him, Tommy joining in almost immediately after. 

Darnold gave him a polite wave, Bubby continuing to sip his drink as he stared Gordon down. Gordon, opting to ignore Bubby’s attempt to make him nervous –even though it was _fucking working_ – offered up a little half-wave in return. He sped up walking, reaching the table with a smile before he slid into the booth next to Tommy. 

“Hi, Mr. Freeman!” Tommy beamed at him. 

Gordon startled as something wet hit his knee, although looking down he saw that it was only Sunkist. 

“Hey, Tommy,” he greeted the other, reaching down to pet Sunkist. 

“Hello, Gordon!” Dr. Coomer smiled at him from across the table. 

“Hey, Dr. Coomer,” Gordon replied, leaning back up as Sunkist licked his hand. 

“Hello, Dr. Freeman,” Darnold said from the other side of Tommy. 

“Hey, Darnold,” Gordon nodded at him, pulling his hand back to himself so that Sunkist wouldn’t completely slobber all over it, though he had a feeling that the act was in vain. 

“Gordon,” Bubby said. 

“Bubby,” Gordon said back.

The scientist was sat across from him, an arm thrown across the back of the booth haphazardly. “Where’s your guard dog?”

His gazefinally left Sunkist when he looked up at Bubby, confusion evident on his face. “My what?” It dawned on him after a moment, and he rolled his eyes. “You mean _Benrey_?”

“ _Duh_.” 

“Dunno, he ran off when we got here,” Gordon shrugged. 

Bubby raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything else on the matter. 

“Uh– who’s Benrey?” Darnold piped up. 

Before Gordon could answer that complicated question, Benrey beat him to it. 

“Boo.” 

Darnold jumped in his seat, head whipping around only to come face-to-face with the person in question who was smiling like a maniac. Darnold’s eyes narrowed. “Hey! You’re that guy who messed up my computer!” 

“Huh?” 

Darnold only looked more confused at the response. 

Gordon rolled his eyes again as Benrey jumped over the half-wall that separated the booth area from the arcade machines. The guard walked around the booth that they had occupied and slid in next to Gordon.

“Benrey!” Tommy grinned, waving at him even though the guard was just on the other side of Gordon. 

“‘Sup, Tommy.” 

“Hello, Benrey!” Dr. Coomer greeted, getting a two-fingered salute from Benrey in lieu of a reply.

Bubby stared at him for a moment before offering him a quick nod, which Benrey returned, their weird alliance still making Gordon nervous after what happened with his arm, although he highly doubted that Benrey would do something like that again. Probably.

His reverie was interrupted by Sunkist popping his head up from underneath the table once more, enthusiastically licking at Benrey’s hand as he did Gordon’s. 

Benrey directed his grin down at the dog, hand going out to scratch behind his ears. 

Gordon watched out of the corner of his eye as the server approached Dr. Coomer, saying something that he couldn’t make out, although his gaze almost immediately strayed back to Benrey. The guard looked up, grin widening as he caught Gordon staring. 

Sitting up straighter, he poked his finger against Gordon’s thigh, flipping his hand over in a silent offer. Gordon smiled at him, taking the other up on his offer and sliding his fingers through Benrey’s. 

When he looked back up, he caught Darnold staring at their conjoined hands, something akin to surprise in his eyes before he schooled his expression into a polite smile. 

Gordon glanced over at Tommy, who seemed to be very intensely watching Dr. Coomer and Bubby as they played rock, paper, scissors against each other for some reason that Gordon didn’t think he wanted to know. 

His gaze darted back over to Benrey, who was now the one staring at him, the guard’s eyes crinkling at the corners when green met grey.

“Bro, c’mon, let's go fuckin’ uh– play,” he said, tugging at Gordon’s hand, jerking his head in the direction of the arcade games.

Another look around the table confirmed that no one seemed to be paying attention to either of them. Turning back to Benrey, he shrugged, causing Benrey’s smile to widen into a grin. 

Benrey slid out from the seat, clutching the physicist’s wrist as he dragged him along, circling the wall to enter the game side without so much as a goodbye to the others. 

Gordon smiled unconsciously as Benrey pulled him over to an air hockey table, which was surprisingly empty considering that it was around 8:00 o'clock on a Sunday night. 

“Air hockey? I was under the impression that you were a gamer,” Gordon’s voice was teasing as he leaned against the table, watching as Benrey shoved some (most likely stolen) tokens into the coin slot. 

“Ready to lose, Feetman?” 

Gordon snorted. “In your dreams, asshole.” 

“Nah, bro, maybe in yours,” Benrey replied, winking at him. 

Gordon let out a laugh involuntarily, slapping a hand over his mouth to poorly hide the grin there. “That doesn’t even make sense,” he complained. 

The lights on the game had only been lit up for a fraction of a second when Benrey slammed his puck into the slot at an uncanny speed. 

“That’s cheating!” 

“Huh?” 

Gordon sighed, very aware at this point that Benrey was just fucking with him for the fun of it. Reaching back, he deftly tied his hair up into a ponytail with an obnoxiously bright pink hair tie that Benrey had given him, and which Gordon had decided not to question the origin of for his own sanity. “Okay, let’s fucking go.”

Benrey grinned at him, slinking around to Gordon’s side of the table and hopping up onto the side, to the physicist's confusion.

“What’re you doing?” 

Benrey raised his hand, fingers brushing a strand of hair from Gordon’s face, tucking it behind his ear before leaning in. “Wanna kiss?” His lips brushed against Gordon’s ear as he whispered.

Gordon felt his face go bright red, eyes widening in surprise. Snapping out of it after a second, hands came up to push Benrey backward slightly. “Wh– what?” He asked, his jaw dropped in shock.

Benrey smirked right before the hockey table dinged, green eyes catching Benrey’s fingers at the edge of the slot, the puck slipping out from under them and falling in. With a cackle, the guard hopped off the table, slipping back around to his own side.

Gordon suppressed a smile at the sight, reaching up to let his fingers ghost over the strand of hair that Benrey had touched. “You ready, bro?” 

Looking up at the words, he directed a grin at the other before picking up the striker, darting forward in half a second to knock the puck straight into the other’s slot. 

“Yooo, c’mon, man, no fair,” Benrey pouted at him. 

When Gordon looked up though, the guard was smiling at him. 

They knocked the puck back and forth across the table until the timer ran out, Benrey letting out a loud whoop as he won. 

Gordon grinned and shook his head. “Cheater,” he said, though there was no venom in the words. 

“Na– wha? Wha– bro– am not.” 

“Yeah, okay, man,” Gordon snorted as he went around the table, reaching out to rest a hand on Benrey’s arm. 

Benrey moved over, leaning against his side, head dropping onto his shoulder. 

Gordon smiled down at him, letting his palm slide from his arm to press against his back. Gordon’s body warmed as Benrey smiled up at him. Gaze shifting to the side for a minute, his gaze caught on something behind the other. “Hey! I didn’t know they had skeeball!” 

Gordon grabbed Benrey’s elbow, dragging the other through the sea of excited children toward the machine. He felt Benrey pull his arm from his grasp, hand slipping into Gordon’s own and intertwining their fingers. Stopping at the machine, Gordon spun around to face Benrey, hand held out expectantly. 

“Wha?” 

“Come on, gimme some tokens, man!” 

“Dunno what you’re on about, bro,” there was amusement in Benrey’s eyes. 

“Benrey,” he said, annoyance clear in his voice. 

Benrey grinned at him but reached into his pocket and dropped two tokens into his palm.

Gordon dropped onto a knee, pushing two tokens into the coin slot with his thumb, proceeding to jump back to his feet far faster than he should have been able too and snatching up a ball as it rolled down. 

Mentally thanking Benrey for deciding to commandeer his left hand instead of his right, he swung his arm back before shooting it forward, sending the ball rolling forwards in a blur of motion, the ball landing in the highest one on the first try. “Yes!” Gordon pumped his fist in the air, spinning to grin widely at Ben warming at the look on the other’s face, he ducked his head down a little, reaching out to snag another ball, rolling it again and landing it in the second-highest hole.

Approximately three minutes later, Gordon had wracked up a shit ton of points. He saw Benrey reach down to grab the tickets that were being dispensed from the machine with a horrible screeching noise, and stopped him with a hand on his wrist. 

Benrey looked up at him in confusion. 

“Leave ‘em, we don’t really need them.” 

The guard shrugged in reply, unfolding his legs and hopping off the side of the machine, cracking his neck with a sound that made Gordon wince. 

His eyes caught on a kid staring at the game, coins clutched in his fist and tickets in the other. 

Green eyes darted around the room before they landed on one of those stupid claw machines. Not wanting to hog the game, he grabbed Benrey’s wrist and dragged the other over toward it, getting out of the kid’s way so that he could play. 

“Now where we goin’?” 

Gordon dropped the guard’shand, slipping his own into the guard's pocket and snatching three coins from it before moving to insert them into the slot. His gaze caught on something when he looked back up from the coin insert. “Hey! They have a seven-up bar, I haven’t had one of those in fucking forever.” 

Now that Gordon thought about it, didn’t they get discontinued? 

“Huh, thought they got uh– deleted,” Benrey voiced Gordon’s thoughts aloud, leaning against the machine. 

Gordon shrugged after a second, reaching out to grip the handle and directing the crane over the bar before hitting the red button, quietly cursing under his breath as it snapped around the bar and immediately let it go. Sighing, he looked sideways at Benrey, who’s eyes he could have sworn flashed blue for a second. Gordon frowned. Maybe he should start getting more sleep. “This thing’s rigged.” 

“You sure?” 

Gordon blinked at him in confusion, tilting his head slightly. 

Benrey just smirked at him, continuing to pick at his nails as he jerked his head toward the machine. 

Eyebrow raised, Goron turned back to the stupid machine, surprise lighting up his face when he saw that the bar had disappeared. He cast Benrey a wary looked, but the other only raised his eyebrows, gesturing to the machine once more. Gordon bit the inside of his cheek, nervous, but crouched downanyway, figuring that he hadn’t recently done anything that would warrant a prank. 

Body tense, he stuck his hand into the prize slot, fingers wrapping around the item before he yanked his hand out of the slot. He blinked in shock as his fingers unwrapped to reveal the bar. Hand coming down to press against the floor and push him up, Gordon’s gaze darted between Benrey and the bar.

“How– but it didn’t fall before,” the statement came out as more of a question.

“Musta been wrong, bro, stupid lil’ baby can’t see. Dumb glasses man.” 

Ignoring the mocking, Gordon looked from Benrey to the machine to back at Benrey. Suddenly, it clicked, and he felt affection warm him. He stepped closer to the guard, voice quiet. “You used your powers to get me a candy bar?” 

“Huh?” 

Gordon smiled at him, eyes going soft as Benrey continued to stare down at his nails. Leaning down quickly, the physicist pressed a kiss to his cheek. 

Benrey’s head jerked up in surprise, –a rare expression to see on the other– mouth open and face tinting red. 

Gordon’s smile morphed into a grin at the reaction. Grabbing the other’s hand once more, he pulled a flustered Benrey back toward the others. He tore open the bar’s packaging with his teeth on the way, taking a bite, a look of disgust immediately crossing his face. He turned toward the trash can that they had, thankfully, been passing at the moment and spat the contents into it. “Yeah, this is expired,” Gordon swallowed in an attempt to get the horrid taste out of his mouth to no avail. 

Benrey, apparently having no such qualms, plucked the bar from his hands, biting into it as Gordon stared blankly at him. 

“Did you not hear what I _just_ said?”

Benrey shrugged, taking another bite as Gordon sighed in defeat. “Alright then.” 

Gordon turned the corner, Benrey moving forward to press up against his side, seemingly having recovered from the shock from earlier. Bumping their shoulders together, Gordon looked down at the guard, only to see that his gaze was firmly fixed on the pizza sauce-stained flooring.

Tommy was the first of the group to notice them approach, waving enthusiastically. “Hey, guys! They got– uh we gotta pizza!” He informed them when they were in ear-shot. 

Gordon smiled at him, allowing Benrey to slip into the booth first before slipping in after him. He made a face as the other crunched on the expired candy bar. “You’re gonna make yourself sick,” he attempted to reason futilely. 

“Nah,” Benrey replied, chewing louder than before. 

Darnold leaned out to shoot a confused look at Gordon from behind Tommy and Benrey. “Is he allergic?” Darnold asked, concern evident in his voice. 

“No,” Gordon sighed, “it’s expired.” 

Bubby scoffed and, never missing an opportunity to challenge Gordon, leaned forward to rest his chin on his open palm “And how would you know?”

“Because I ate some, asshole.” 

Bubby raised an eyebrow at him. “You ate some from the same bar?” 

“... yeah? So?” Gordon racked his brain for what the hell this could be about but came up with nothing. 

He caught a glimpse of Bubby’s sharp teeth as the scientist flashed him a truly terrifying grin. 

Gordon watched in confusion as Bubby shared a look with Dr. Coomer and Tommy, thankful that Darnold seemed to be just as confused as him. 

Benrey, as always, was paying no attention to the recent turn of events. 

“What?” Gordon frowned at them, wariness in his eyes. 

The wariness only increased when Tommy handed Bubby a crumpled ten-dollar bill from his coat pocket, Dr. Coomer doing the same right after.

Tommy turned to him, a bright smile on his face. “Uh, we’re very happy for you, Mr. Freeman!”

“Wha– why are you giving him money?” Gordon asked, panicked, eyes darting frantically between the three. 

“Congratulations, Gordon!” Dr. Coomer beamed at him instead of answering the question.

“Thanks, Dr. Coomer– but that doesn’t answer my question!” 

“We bet on when you stupid gayboys would get your heads outta your asses,” Bubby grinned at him menacingly from across the round table. 

Gordon sputtered, face going bright fucking red. “What? We aren’t–“ he looked over to Benrey for help, but in truly unhelpful Benrey fashion, he just patted Gordon on the shoulder consolingly, smirking as he popped the last of the candy bar into his mouth.

“S’okay, bro, they still love us,” his voice came out condescendingly. 

Tommy piped up. “Of course, Mr. Freeman– we’re proud of you!” 

Gordon groaned, burying his face in his hands and mentally planning Bubby’s murder. 

“I didn’t realize you two were dating,” Darnold spoke up from his place at the table. 

Before Gordon could respond, Benrey beat him to it with a reply that made Gordon seriously contemplate stabbing him in the middle of the Chuck E. Cheese, consequences be damned. “Yeah, bro, don’t think he does either, m’working on it.”

—

Gordon was a good person for the most part. He went to church on Christmas (only because his ex-wife dragged him and Joshua there, but it still counted, okay?) and he paid his bills on time and, excluding the whole Black Mesa incident, he had never hurt anyone in his life. So he could not, _for the life of him_ , figure out what the hell he’d done to deserve the kind of luck he had. 

For example, that bad luck is what had currently landed him in an impromptu and incredibly awkward staring contest with _Forzen_ of all people. 

“Uh– should I have knocked?” 

Gordon was laying down on his back next to Benrey –who was laying on his stomach and swiping his thumb across his phone as he scrolled through something– with the cover pulled up over them, but that didn’t take away from the knowledge that they both weren’t wearing clothes and that the weird French-Canadian military man was in the room with them. 

Gordon sighed, elbow bent as he dropped his forehead onto his hand. “Why does everyone insist on breaking into my house?” he asked, praying that maybe some sort of higher being would just give him a fucking answer.

“Yo, hey, bro, s'up?” Benrey greeted the other, although he continued to scroll through his phone, not even bothering to glance up. 

“I got a uh– a letter, inviting me here? An invitation. I got an invitation,” the words came out as more of a question than a statement.

Gordon removed his face from his hand, looking back up at the man with clear exasperation written across his face. “I don’t think I’ve sent anyone a letter in at _least_ two years.”

The sound of a door slamming shut echoed down the hallway, the noise quickly followed by a loud bark. 

Benrey shot a glance over at him. “Bro, why’d you invite people?” 

Gordon gritted his teeth. “I didn’t,” he snapped, turning his gaze on Forzen, “and why the hell are you still here?” 

“I got an invitation,” he repeated, sounding more sure of himself. 

“Oh my _god_ ,” Gordon slapped against his face with a smack and dragged it down. 

Before he could yell at the man, however, Tommy was at the door, bounding into the room with a bright smile. 

“Hey, Mr. Free– oh.” He cut himself off, blinking at the sight in front of him. 

Gordon wanted to _die_. 

“Hey, Tommy,” he exhaled. 

Tommy smiled again, although this time he didn’t look happy as he did awkward. “Hey, Benrey,” he greeted the other with a stiff half-wave. 

Benrey doubled tapped on his phone, still not looking up, but he threw up a peace sign in acknowledgment. 

“Gordon?” Dr. Coomer’s voice rang out down the hallway. 

Gordon _really_ wanted to die. 

Dr. Coomer popped up in the doorway, –Bubby next to him as usual– waving happily as though there was nothing odd about the sight in front of him. “Hello, Gordon! Happy birthday!” 

Gordon’s eyebrows knit together. “It’s not–“ he froze as tired eyes caught the date on his old alarm clock. 

Oh shit, it was his birthday. “Oh, uh– thanks.”

“You’re welcome, Gordon!” Dr. Coomer beamed at him. 

Reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose between his fingers, Gordon took a deep breath. “Now can everyone, _please_ get out of my room,” he requested, voice strained. 

Frozen was out the door almost immediately, Tommy running to catch up with him as he said something that Gordon couldn’t quite make out.

Dr. Coomer continued to grin at him, eyes completely blank like they had been doing occasionally since the other had seen ‘nothing’ at Black Mesa. 

Bubby, thankfully, placed a hand on the other’s back to steer him out the door, but not before looking over his shoulder and mouthing ‘gayboys’ at Gordon. 

Gordon gave him the finger, although Bubby only laughed as he left the room with Dr. Coomer.

To Gordon’s confusion, Benrey proceeded to sit up, seemingly going to get out of bed. Gordon grabbed his elbow, electing a questioning look from the other but not an answer. “Where are you going?” 

“Bro, you said to uh– like leave,” Benrey blinked dumbly at him. 

“Not _you_ , dumbass.” 

“Oh haha, nice,” The guard flopped back down against the bed, on his back now as he resumed scrolling through his phone. 

Gordon stared at him expectantly, rolling his eyes when the other’s gaze stayed fixated on the screen. “Benrey.”

“Wha?” 

Moving the blankets to the side, Gordon pushed himself into a sitting position, snagging his jeans and boxers from the floor to slip them on. “We have people over.” 

“Yeah, bro, I saw them.” 

Gordon turned, glaring at him with his arms crossed over his chest, although the intended intimidation effect was most likely taken away by his messy hair and squinting eyes in an attempt to focus his blurred vision on Benrey’s face. “Which means we have to get dressed and go downstairs,” he spelled it out for the other. 

Benrey groaned and dropped his phone against his chest. “Don’t wanna, can’t we jus’ chill out? Get some uh– special friendship time with your good pal Benrey?” 

Gordon’s annoyed glare remained.

Benrey huffed. “Fine, bro, whatever,” he grumped. 

Gordon breathed a sigh of pure relief as Benrey sat up. Satisfied, he plucked his glasses off the bedside table and slid them back on, newly clear vision scanning the room for his shirt. Not seeing it, he pushed himself off of the bed and walked over to his open closet, snagging a different one off a hanger and pulling it on. He turned, rolling his eyes and smiling slightly at the sight of Benrey already wearing his shirt, sitting cross-legged on the end of the bed and phone still out. 

Walking over, Gordon placed a hand on Benrey’s shoulder, shaking the other gently. “Come on, we gotta go, man,” he said, smile evident in his voice. 

Benrey leaned over, doing the opposite of what Gordon had said and resting his head against the physicist's side. “Don’t wanna,” he whined, arms coming up to wrap around Gordon’s waist.

Green eyes crinkled at the corners as Gordon ran his hand through Benrey’s hair, fingers tangling in the short black strands. He tugged gently to tilt the other’s head up and ducked down, placing a chaste kiss to the guard’s lips, a startled noise slipping out when Benrey dug his fingers into Gordon’s upper arms and fell backward, effectively dragging Gordon down with him. 

Elbows hitting the comforter, Gordon let out an ‘oof’, quick reflexes thankfully stopping him just in time to keep his skull from smacking against Benrey’s and making his birthday party consist of a trip to the ER for stitches. Well, stitches for Gordon at least, Benrey could probably just use his weird eldritch shit to fucking heal himself, which come to think of it, was probably why he was unconcerned about the fact that he could have just cracked their skulls with that dumbass move. 

Prick. 

Using his elbows to push himself up, Gordon hovered over Benrey, who was grinning at him.

“Wow, bro, kinda uhh– gay of you haha,” he teased, although he proceeded to wrap his arms around Gordon’s neck despite the words. 

“Wh– gay of _me_? You’re the one who–” Gordon cut himself off at the sight of Benrey’s poorly repressed shit-eating smirk and frowned, “oh fuck you, man, can’t you at least be nice to me on my birthday?” 

Benrey actually had the gall to look offended at the comment. “Bro, I’m like, so nice,” he protested. 

Gordon snorted. “Yeah? Fucking when?” 

“Remember– you remember, bro? Like an hour ago when–” 

Facing heating up, Gordon slapped a hand over the guard's mouth, feeling Benrey snicker against his palm. “That’s not what I fucking meant and you know it, asshole,” he snapped, willing the red in his cheeks to go away. 

Benrey pouted but looked thoughtful for a second, grey eyes staring at the ceiling as he tapped his fingers against the comforter. After a minute he lit up, and Gordon cautiously removed his hand. 

“I uhh– I beat up that dick who tripped you lol.” 

Confused, Gordon racked his mind in an attempt to remember who exactly had tripped him, uncertainty only increasing when he drew a blank. “I– wait, when did somebody trip me?” he asked. 

Benrey huffed, rolling his eyes at Gordon like _he_ was the idiot. “Remember? Like– like we were comin’ back from the uhh– food place and you did a lil’ trippy, on the walking road, lil’ clumsy boy.” 

Gordon blinked again, eyebrows drawing together. “Walking road– you mean– you mean the _sidewalk_?” 

“Huh? Oh yeah, sure, him,” Benrey said, bored. 

“Is that why they closed that road off?” Gordon got the feeling that ‘beat up’ actually meant ‘blew to pieces’. Well, at least maybe now the city would fix their fucking sidewalks. 

Benrey’s only reply came in the form of a sharp-toothed grin, eyes flashing blue. 

Gordon tried to glare at him in disapproval, but his lips quirking up at the corners gave him away. Shaking his head fondly, Gordon reached a hand up in a fruitless attempt to push the hair from his face. 

He planted his hands against the cotton comforter, pushing himself up and off of Benrey to stand, –no matter how much he didn’t want too– they had (uninvited) guests downstairs after all, and Gordon wasn’t sure how he felt about Bubby being allowed to run free in his house, what with his pyromaniac tendencies and all.

He figured there was a pretty good chance that this party would end with the building being evacuated. 

Shoving his glasses back up his nose, he rolled his eyes at the sight in front of him, which consisted of Benrey being engrossed in his phone again. Good thing he had already thought of a way to get him back into the world of the living. “C’mon, Benrey, you can get some cake,” he offered, smirking when the words immediately got Benrey’s attention, the other looking up at him with wide eyes. 

“Damn... never had cake before.” 

“Then let’s go get you some cake.” 

“Bro, you should uh– you should uh, carry me.” 

“I’m not carrying you down the stairs, I’ll break my fucking neck, idiot.” 

Benrey sighed as though he was suffering a great hardship, but stood up anyway, slipping his fingers between Gordon’s and pressing their palms together as he leaned against Gordon’s side, grey eyes still glued to his cracked phone screen. 

Walking out the open door, Gordon shot a glance over at Benrey’s phone to see what the other had been so obsessed with. “Are you– are you looking at pictures of _worms_?” Gordon squinted down at the screen. 

“Wha?”

“Oh just– never fucking mind, man,” Gordon sighed, leading the other as he stared at his phone, despite Gordon’s constant warnings not to stare at the screen while walking down the stairs. 

“Mr. Freeman!” he spotted Tommy waving frantically at him from the lower level, Darnold standing right next to him with an uneasy expression and crossed arms.

Gordon spotted the cake on the middle of the kitchen island, feeling Benrey slip out of his grasp.

Before he could stop the other, Benrey had already hurtled himself over the railing, sneakers hitting the floor with a thump. 

Shaking his head, Gordon continued his descent of the stairs like a normal person, watching Benrey bolt towards the cake, slamming his hands against the table in overeagerness. 

“Yooo, gimme,” he made grabby hands at the cake. 

Dr. Coomer –who seemed to be cutting cake for the others judging from the cake server in his hand– looked over at Gordon for permission. 

Gordon shrugged from halfway down the stairs before nodding.

Dr. Coomer kindly cut a piece and slid it onto a paper plate, handing it to Benrey who, like the absolute monster he was, picked it off the plate –smearing his fingers with icing– and shoved it into his mouth whole. 

Gordon sighed and hung his head, used to Benrey’s antics by now and knowing that there just wasn’t fixing some of his bad habits. Jogging down the rest of the stairs, Gordon walked over to stand next to Darnold, shoving his hands into his pockets. 

“Happy birthday, Dr. Freeman,” Darnold congratulated him with a polite smile.

Gordon matched his smile, about to thank the other before he was distracted by a strange wetness coating the side of his leg. Startled, he jumped backward, muscles relaxing and panic fading from his eyes when he realized that his attacker was only Sunkist. 

Sunkist wagged his tail happily, hitting it against the table leg with a consistent thump as he drooled all over the kitchen tile. 

Gordon crouched down, opening his arms so that Sunkist could throw himself into them, almost knocking Gordon down in his haste due to his absolutely ridiculous size, elatedly dragging his tongue up the side of Gordon’s face as the physicist laughed, hand coming up the scratch behind the dog’s floppy ears. “Hey, bud,” Gordon grinned at him as Sunkist gave him another lick. 

“Hello, Gordon!” 

Gordon looked up to see Dr. Coomer standing over, smiling as usual. “Hey, Dr. Coomer, what’s up?” 

“Would you like some cake, Gordon?” 

“Yeah, thanks, Dr. Coomer,” Gordon smiled at him, letting out a yelp as Sunkist finally succeeded in knocking him over, his back hitting the tiles as the dog stood over him, tongue lolling in Gordon’s face. 

Gordon’s laughter was promptly cut off when he inhaled the scent of something burning. He practically leapt to his feet, but before he could frantically check for the source of the smoke, it was shoved right in front of his face by none other than Bubby. 

_Of_ _course_. 

Gordon blinked dumbly at the pink cupcake in his direct line of vision –that was engulfed in fucking flames– as Bubby grinned at him, mouth stretching wider than physically possible.

“What– why’s this on fire?”

Bubby’s manic grin fell at the question, eyes rolling as though Gordon’s question was idiotic, when in fact it was a _completely reasonable_ question. 

“It’s your birthday cupcake, they’re supposed to be on fire,” he said slowly, patronizing tone grating on Gordon’s nerves. 

“I know that, but you– the candle–” Gordon stuttered **,** sighing in defeat when the words wouldn’t come, “nevermind, thanks.”

He hesitated for a second before taking a deep breath, readying himself to attempt to blow out the ball of fire. However, he was rudely ( _read: thankfully)_ interrupted by Benrey slinking away from the table and holding his cup over the flaming cupcake, tipping it and sending water cascading down over the flames. 

Bubby scowled, shooting the other an intimidating glare. “Hey! I wanted to watch him fail,” he snarked, pissed. 

Benrey only shrugged in response, turning to Gordon as Bubby huffed and strolled over to where Dr. Coomer was doing something to his sink, hopefully not damaging it too badly. 

“Damn, how’s it feel to be old, bro?”

“Wh– _old_? You’re one fucking year younger than me,” Gordon sputtered indignantly. 

“Huh?” 

“I _hate_ you.” 

“Nuh-uh, bro, you totally love me. Capital L ‘n shit too.” 

Sighing, Gordon rolled his eyes but didn’t object to the accusation. “Just fucking– just eat your fucking cake, man,” he replied, running a hand through his hair, fingers almost immediately catching on a knot. 

He saw Benrey grin out of the corner of his eye, but opted to ignore it, figuring that calling the other out would only lead to another series of back-and-forth comments that made Gordon want to pull his hair out. Too bad he couldn’t ignore him when he got up in Gordon’s space, pressing himself into Gordon’s space and wrapping his arms tightly around his neck. 

“Brooo, for real?” his eyes fucking _twinkled_ up at Gordon. 

“Eat your cake, Benrey,” Gordon huffed, looking off to the side, unconsciously looping an arm around Benrey’s waist despite his words. 

Benrey, however, only grinned wider, pushing himself up onto his tiptoes to press a kiss to Gordon’s lips. 

“Same,” he whispered against Gordon’s mouth, causing the physicist to snort, biting back a smile. 

“Get a room,” Bubby called out from the direction of the kitchen sink. 

Startled back into reality and suddenly remembering that there were currently other people in the room, Gordon reluctantly pushed Benrey away, turning to glare at Bubby. “This is my fucking house, man.” 

Bubby rolled his eyes and grimaced, but for once didn’t argue back with Gordon, most likely due to the fact that he was too busy staring at Dr. Coomer with literal _hearts_ in his eyes –and he thought Gordon and Benrey were bad– as the other scientist grabbed his hand and dragged him out through the archway that lead to the living room, where Forzen was currently inspecting a picture of Gordon and Joshua that had been sloppily taped to the wall. 

Reaching out, Gordon snagged an unopened soda from the table before Benrey completely disappeared from in front of him. 

He had only half-processed that Benrey had done his weird eldritch thing to glitch over to the living room –although Gordon had no idea whether it was on purpose or not, and knowing Benrey, the guard probably didn’t know either– before he was startled by a loud shot going off right by his ear. He jumped backward, pure panic written across his face as he whipped his head in the direction of the noise, only to come face-to-face with an equally surprised Tommy clutching one of those noisemakers in his hand. Gordon’s shoulders slumped, untensing at the realization that there wasn’t any threat. 

“Uhh– are you alright, Mr. Freeman?” Tommy asked, worry lacing his tone. 

Shooting the man a smile that he hoped wasn’t too shaky, Gordon racked his brain for a reply that would be truthful yet not warrant much concern. 

Thankfully, a loud shout from the living room saved him from having to spout out some bullshit, or worse, far too honest answer. 

Not so thankfully, however, a look at the living room displayed Bubby and Forzen practically yelling at each other, volume increasing with each word spoken. 

The military leader’s expression turned from angry to downright enraged when he backed up into Benrey, who threw his hand around to smack the rest of the cake that he had been eating in Forzen’s face. 

Benrey didn’t bat an eyelid when Forzen turned on him, face covered in icing and full-on screaming in Benrey’s face at that point. 

It was actually sort of comical in a way, how Forzen was shouting –and was he fucking screaming about _irate gamer_?– at Benrey, voice laced with pure fury, while Benrey stared blankly at him, grey eyes glossed over. Okay, Gordon kind of got the appeal of watching him and Benrey argue now. It was funny, in a way, although he would never fucking admit that. 

His humor turned to worry as green eyes caught on Bubby’s hands, sparks flying off of them, dread welling up in a pit in his stomach at the sight. 

Tommy must have seen too because he muttered a quiet “oh no.” from next to Gordon. 

Sadly, Gordon’s dread seemed to be fully justified, because not a second later the rug that Forzen had been standing on burst into flames. 

Thank God he had insurance. 

“Are you going to do something about that?” Darnold was suddenly next to him, head tipping in the direction of the fire. 

Gordon shrugged. “Eh,” he took a sip of his soda, “kinda fucking hated that carpet anyways.”

Darnold eyed him for a moment before shrugging himself. “Fair enough I guess.” 

He watched from his spot by the kitchen island as Forzen desperately attempted to stomp out the fire, appearance panicked as his military-grade boots hit the ground with a consistent thump. Gordon was fucking shocked that no one had come to complain yet.

He winced in sympathy as Bubby grabbed onto the poor man’s arm, most likely digging his sharp nails in as he attempted to yank him roughly away from the fire, although Gordon was pretty sure that the act was more out of concern for his precious fire than Forzen’s safety. 

Benrey was sat on the small wooden table up against the middle of the wall, legs swinging back and forth as he loudly sipped his soda, despite the can being empty and the action only producing an obnoxiously loud noise. 

Knowing Benrey though, that was most likely –scratch that– definitely the intended effect. 

At least Dr. Coomer –and now Tommy, _when the hell did he get over there_?– seemed to be having some non-destructive fun, watching some barbie movie that Dr. Coomer must have found and inserted into the DVD player. Squinting at the screen, Gordon concluded that it must have been one of the movies that he may or may not have been asleep for. In his defense, he did stay awake for most of them, although he did tend to mix the plots up, to Joshua’s annoyance. Gordon was shaken from his Barbie Movie induced thoughts by Darnold’s voice piping up, trying just a tad too hard to sound casual. 

“So uh, you and Benrey are good now?” 

Gordon frowned slightly. “What do you mean?” 

Darnold shrugged. “I don’t know, I remember you two were at each other’s throats back in my lab.” 

“Yeah, that was because he’s a fucking _nuisance_.” 

“Is it stressful? You know, now that you two are… dating?” He sounded unsure, as if waiting for Gordon to confirm what most of the team already suspected, but nervous about prying. 

Six months ago, hell, six days ago, he would have vehemently protested the idea, –or, more accurately, just stuttered while Benrey said something completely embarrassing– but at the moment he couldn’t find it in himself to argue. 

He sipped at his soda. “Yeah,” he smiled softly, “it really is.” 

But when Benrey noticed his staring and grinned at him from his place on the table across the room, hands coming up to form a heart with a wink, he got the feeling that it was going to be worth the early grey hairs it would inevitably give him.

Suddenly, the sprinklers went off, fire alarm blaring –just as Gordon _fucking_ predicted– as everyone was drenched with water, leaving him soaked and sputtering as he realized that the fire on the rug had spread across the room. 

“ _God damn it_!”

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY OKAY  
> so first of all, happy birthday 2 me bc i'm iconic and also it's 3am  
> second of all, i am so SO sorry this took so long. i have like a million excuses such as shows and video games and the fact that i wrote two other long fics before i saw a post that said that Wayne didn't want NSFW content in the fandom (i think??? idk if someone could clarify that would b nifty) so then i had to write something else aaaaa for the amount of time i spent of this you think i'd actually like it but no rip :(  
> i'm gonna stop myself rn so i don't ramble forever but i got a Tumblr sideblog!! hmu if u want :]  
> Tumblr: hddvd-idiot  
> ALSO IMPORTANT LAST THING  
> i will definitely not take this long ever again, i just had a lotta shit happening.  
> thank u 4 reading hope u enjoy <3 promise i got better stuff coming ;) (hint hint one of them's that road trip au i mentioned lol)


End file.
